


Watching You Fall

by Emerald_Ashes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fevers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Death, No Major Character Death, Sickfic, chapter two with more fluff, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-11-19 23:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11324382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald_Ashes/pseuds/Emerald_Ashes
Summary: Shiro couldn't find Lance. He knew he was in danger after his communications ended abruptly. But he certainly wasn't prepared to find Lance dying on the floor of a Galra base during one their missions.





	1. Chapter 1

Shiro couldn’t find Lance.

They entire team had split up during a recon mission onto a Galra communications base. It was supposed to be a fairly quiet operation, as the base wasn’t fully staffed. Their presence was meant to go unnoticed. But as luck would have it, things did not go according to plan. And by now, Shiro should really stop expecting it to.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up when he heard Lance call out through the comms.

“Guys, I have company,” he whispered hurriedly. Shiro heard a blaster shot echo in the background, and then Lance’s shout. It was a pained cry that startled Shiro the most and made a horrible feeling settle in his gut. He tried to reach Lance on the comms once more, but he was only met with static silence.

The rest of the team started yelling into the comms as well. “Everyone, stop,” Shiro commanded, trying to calm them. “I’ll find him. I think I’m closest anyway. Just focus on what you were doing.”

Shiro headed to where Lance was supposed to be. He moved about cautiously; part of him wanted to break into a full on sprint to get to Lance quicker. But he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

As Shiro rounded the next corner, he heard rushed footsteps coming his way. Two Galra soldiers were running down the hall. He couldn’t quite see them yet, but he could definitely hear them.

“…evacuate before we run into the others. This base is compromised.”

“At least that’s one paladin out of Lord Zarkon’s way. Foolish to think he could poison one of us,” the soldier laughed. The word poison chimed through Shiro’s mind.

“Should we have taken his body with us?”

“I’m sure Lord Zarkon has no purpose for a human carcass.” The conversation echoed off the metal hallways.

Shiro felt cold dread wash over him. One of his teammates was dead? Surely, they were mistaken. They had to be.

The footsteps drew nearer. Instantly his mind went blank. He could only think of protecting his team, and so he did the only logical thing and lunged at the soldiers as they passed by him. Shiro had the element of surprise, and so he managed to trip up the first soldier by sweeping their feet out from under them, and knocked them unconscious. The next Galra, Shiro had pinned to the floor before they could draw their weapon, arm wrenched behind their back, and Shiro’s metal hand glowing hot next to the downed soldier’s face.

“What did you do to my friend?” He asked through gritted teeth. The soldier’s yellow eyes were wide with fear. The mutter of “champion” released on his breath. “Talk!” Shiro demanded.

The soldier then smirked up at him. “Your blue paladin? He’s as good as dead. You won’t be able to save him now.”

What could they have done to Lance? The unease gnawing at Shiro grew exponentially. “Where is he?”

“Ahead. You will not make it to him in time, however,” The Galra grinned, flashing his pointed teeth. Shiro snarled as he smashed his fist into the soldier’s jaw, leaving him an unconscious heap on the floor.

Shiro scrambled to his feet and bolted down the corridor. He had to get to Lance. Right as he passed through the doorway there was a familiar sight of blue and white armor, and a listless body sprawled on the ground. Lance was splayed out like he had been trying to crawl away, and then collapsed.

“Lance!” Shiro couldn’t help but shout. He flipped Lance over carefully. A small head wound was slowly trickling blood, and a dark bruise was blossoming on his right cheek, and likely countless more bruises hidden under his armor. His face was ashen, mouth parted slightly with small panting breaths. A pained expression on his face.

“No, no, no, no. Don’t do this to me, buddy,” Shiro spoke shakily. “You’re going to be okay.”

Lance grimaced as Shiro pulled him into his lap, and blinked up at him owlishly. “Shiro?”

“Yeah, I got you.”

“M’sorry. I messed up.”

“No, it’s not your fault.” He tried to console Lance. He looked him over, looking for traces of the poison that was mentioned. Shiro could see shards of glass broken on the ground near Lance’s discarded helmet. It appeared like something pink might have been inside it once.  “Lance, what kind of poison did they use?”

Lance’s consciousness though seemed to be fading as Shiro held him in his arms. At first, Shiro didn’t think he had even heard the question.

“Hurts,” Lance whined as Shiro jostled him, his face scrunched up slightly.

“Lance, please, tell me about the poison.” Shiro begged. He needed to know in case Lance passed out.

“Hm, poison? I didn’t mean to. The Galra…but it’s not. S’not… s’okay,” Lance slurred, not making any sense. His blinks growing slower.

“Lance, no. Don’t go to sleep.” He had to move now. Lance needed medical attention as soon as possible. If he could at least keep him awake, then he might have a chance to save him. “You have to stay awake, okay? Just do that for me, please.”

“Tired though,” Lance responded.

“Lance!” Shiro snapped. It came out sounding angrier than he intended. But his order didn’t seem to be heard. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me! You can’t.”

Lance looked up at him, a tinge of fear in his eyes. “S-sorry.” Lance mumbled. He eyes slipped shut anyway; his head lolled to the side with a small sigh.

No, this couldn’t be happening.

Shiro frantically tried to find Lance’s pulse. And he wanted to scream when he couldn’t even find the smallest of beats underneath his fingertips.  He could no longer see the rise of his chest under his breastplate either. It was so sudden, that it almost didn’t feel real. But the longer he sat there, the realization of what was happening hit Shiro hard. He hugged Lance to his chest, willing this to be a trick.

But Lance didn’t stir. After what felt like an eternity, Shiro managed to collect himself enough to move on. He had to get out of the base.

“Everyone,” he called over the comms, voice rough. “Retreat back to your lions. Hunk and Keith tow the blue lion. Lance is…Lance is down.”

A cacophony of voices erupted over the line after Shiro’s announcement. He couldn’t filter through them all, and so ignored them for now. Instead he just focused on getting back to the black lion. He gently picked Lance up into his arms, and rose from the floor.

He didn’t have the heart to tell them then that Lance was gone.

 

* * *

 

As he arrived in the black lion’s hangar, Shiro felt numb. He couldn’t believe that the Galra soldiers had killed Lance. That was, of course, the risk they had to face daily. This wasn’t even the first time Lance had been critically injured, but to have it actually happen forced reality to come crashing down heavily on his shoulders. It was a blow he wouldn’t be able to recover from anytime soon.

Shiro left his pilot’s chair, and knelt down beside where he had placed Lance on the floor. Lance looked so young in that moment. Shiro brushed his hair out of his face, and then brought him into his arms once more.

He steeled himself, then exited down the ramp. Coran and Allura had come to meet them in the hangar with a stretcher. Shiro wordlessly placed Lance down on top of it.

“He looks…” Allura gasped, hand covering her mouth as she realized what occurred. “Oh no.”

The other paladins filtered into the room moments later. Keith was a good length ahead of Hunk and Pidge. He came to a crashing halt as he spotted Lance limp on the stretcher. His hand extended like he wanted to reach out to somehow help. Hunk came up behind Keith, a startled and terrified squeak leaving his mouth.

“What happened?” Keith’s voice was strained. They all knew Lance was hurt, just not that he was dead.

“Yes. How did this happen?” Coran folded his arms, but Shiro could see his hands balled into fists.

“I didn’t see,” He couldn’t look them in the eye. “I overheard two soldiers mention poison.”

“Poison?” Coran was distracted, looking over Lance.

“Apparently, Lance had tried to poison one of the soldiers. They used it against him. I’m not entirely sure. I-it’s just what I gathered from eavesdropping.”

“W-where did Lance even get poison?” Pidge’s question was quiet, almost a whisper. She was huddled up next to Hunk and Keith as they stared on at the scene.  Hunk looked on the verge of tears, but remained surprisingly quiet as he held onto Pidge. They all looked as distraught as Shiro felt.

“Lance had the poison…” Coran murmured. “How long has it been since you found him?” he looked up to Shiro, a sparkle of something in his eye. Hope?

“Um, about forty minutes, give or take. But I tried to resuscitate him in the lion. It’s been too long for a human to be revived now.”

Coran seemed to do some mental math in his head. And then of all things he smiled. “Oh, dear boy, I don’t know if this was extremely clever or idiotic.” Coran started to push the stretcher quickly towards the infirmary.

“Coran!” Shiro chased after him, the others on hot on his heels. “What are you doing?”

“I suspect it was not poison,” Coran called over his shoulder. “It was a neurotoxin that mimics death. Lance was…well, that doesn’t matter right now. We can still save him; there should be enough time.”

Coran swiftly maneuvered the stretcher into the infirmary. “Get his armor off,” Coran instructed, and then he ran off to one of the corners to fetch something. When he came back he had a rather large syringe in hand, a green substance sloshing around inside.

“Shiro, hold his shoulders down. If this works it’s known to cause some confusion in the recipient.”

He could only nod, as he moved to hold Lance. With his armor removed Shiro could see the mark where the skin of Lance’s neck had been previously punctured. Coran rolled the sleeve of his coverall up, and carefully plunged the needle he was holding into the crook of his arm.

The reaction from the antidote wasn’t immediate. In fact it was agonizingly slow. No one in the room appeared to be breathing as they all watched Lance’s still body. Gradually, his pallor became less ashen, and the rise of his chest became more prominent. Shiro let go of Lance’s shoulders and held his wrist in his hand. He could feel the increase of Lance’s pulse with each passing moment.

Shiro bowed his head as relief overwhelmed him. He hadn’t failed Lance after all.

Coran hummed, “He may sleep for a while longer if he hasn’t already woken up. I’m not certain what effects this will have on humans. And it definitely used to do a number on Alteans that were subjected to the neurotoxin.”

Hunk frowned. “Then we should make him comfortable. Maybe bring him to his room?”

“He probably shouldn’t be alone right now after what happened,” Pidge interjected.

She was right. But Lance would probably fair better if he woke up in his room, rather than the infirmary. “Don’t worry. I’ll look after him.”

Suddenly, Lance made a ragged sound deep in his throat. His body started to tremble like he was cold. He blinked his eyes open, breathing heavily. His gaze roamed lazily over the room, but he didn’t seem to be all there.

“Hey, Lance. You with us?” Shiro placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

He immediately recoiled from it, and tried to pull himself away. He couldn’t manage to get very far though before Keith and Hunk were stopping him on the other side of the stretcher. They grabbed his arm to stop Lance from rolling off onto the floor.

“No, no. Lemme go!” He voice was barely above a whisper, but it was harsh and desperate.  

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Hunk told him softly. Lance continued to weakly thrash about. “Lance, you’re with friends. You’re all right.”

Keith and Hunk reluctantly pulled their hands away from Lance. The sound of Hunk’s voice seemed to calm him down. He stopped trying to fight them, and sunk back into the stretcher. He blinked blearily at them, unable to focus.

“Guys?” he asked, confused. “But the Galra?”

“They’re gone, Lance. You’re back in the castle,” Hunk continued to speak to him. It seemed give him something to focus on. “How do you feel?”

Lance took a moment to process that. “Feel really bad.”

“Like how?” Keith asked next. “What’s wrong?”

Lance’s face scrunched up, “My head hurts. And everything feels really cold. Feel…kind of sick.” Lance moaned.

“Lance,” Shiro started. He was still standing above him, and Lance tilted his head up slightly to look at him. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to ask, but Shiro wanted to know. “Why did you have the poison on you?”

A flash of recognition crossed his face. Lance stared at him with watery eyes. “D-don’t be mad. Please.”

“I’m not mad, buddy,” Shiro reached his hand out, but Lance flinched. So he stopped himself. “I just want to understand.”

“You yelled at me,” Lance cried.

Yelled? When did he do that? “Oh,” Shiro realized. “No, Lance. I was…I wasn’t mad. Honestly. I thought I was going to lose you. I was scared.

“S-scared?” Lance stuttered. He was still shaking. Pidge had wandered off and brought back a blanket. She draped it over Lance, patting his knee as she pulled away.

“You didn’t tell anyone that you had the neurotoxin,” Shiro continued. “I thought you were really dying.”

“I did…I told you.” It was phrased more like a question. “Maybe?”

Things clicked into place then. Lance had actually attempted to tell him not to worry when he was found. It just wasn’t exactly coherent. Shiro couldn’t help but chuckle. “You weren’t making much sense. I didn’t know.”

“Oh, s-sorry,” Lance closed his eyes. He took a few moments before he started to speak again. But it seemed to come easier to him this time. “One soldier snuck up on me. We were fighting. I-I tried to scare him off with the poison. I didn’t mean to bring it with me; Coran was telling me about it before the mission started. I…I was losing, and tried to bluff my way out. But then the second Galra showed up. They were going to take me prisoner. I told them I’d rather die.”

“You should have called for backup,” Keith reprimanded.

“They knocked my helmet off,” Lance almost snapped at him. He moaned slightly, as if it was taking too much energy to speak. “It’s not like I wanted to be injected with that junk. But I was dumb. And It feels horrible. Like you really are dying. E-everything slows down, and you c-can’t control your body.” Lance stopped, his lips trembled as he tried to contain a sob. “I was scared.”

Lance started crying. Tears streaming down his pale face. “I’m sorry.”

“No, Lance, don’t cry,” Allura cooed softly, trying to soothe him. “You were very brave.”

“It was actually quite smart,” Coran added, beaming at Lance. “You saved yourself from capture by lying about the neurotoxin. Brilliant!”

“You’re not mad?”

“Not at all,” Shiro offered Lance a smile. This time Lance didn’t shy away when Shiro patted him on the shoulder. He ran his hand through Lance’s hair, careful to avoid his cut. Even though Lance had been complaining about the cold, it felt like he was actually beginning to feel a bit feverish. Most likely a side-effect from the antidote. “You did a good job, Lance.”

Lance sniffled, a twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips. “Can I sleep now?” His question directed at Shiro, but he already seemed to be drifting off.

“Sure, we’ll patch you up. And we’ll be here for you when you wake.” But Lance was already asleep. And that was okay because Shiro would look after him.  


	2. Chapter 2

Lance had a bad feeling the moment he set foot in the base.

Maybe because he still felt slightly unprepared for what they were doing. He wasn’t sure exactly. Lance knew the gist of the plan. But back on the castle-ship, he hadn’t been paying attention to the time as he had been deep in a conversation with Coran.

Of all things, Lance brought up Shakespeare. Mainly Lance was discussing the tale of  _Romeo and Juliet._ He was recapping the story for Coran and when he came to the end about the poison, Coran had chimed enthusiastically, “Oh! We’ve used something like that before. We have a small store of it down in the infirmary.”

So Coran then led Lance rather eagerly down to the room and shuffled him off to the small lab adjacent to the main part of the med-bay. In a cabinet, there were about a dozen vials filled with a thick pinkish liquid. Coran handed one over for Lance to examine, but that’s when Allura had called them all to the bridge. They had been so distracted that Lance had accidentally run out of the lab with the vial to their meeting. Once he realized it was still in his hand, he placed it in a concealed pouch on his suit. There was no time to return it to its proper place as they were departing moments after Allura had concluded their meeting.

Now, Lance was off on his own in the stupid base, basically patrolling. He never did like it when the team was split up, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was supposed to call out if there was trouble, or if he saw anything of importance. But primarily they were here for data, and that was Pidge’s thing all the way.

So Lance milled about cautiously. Serving as a guard should any unexpected Galra be heading their way.

He didn’t even see it coming. One moment he was checking around the corner to make his next move -even with a map this place was still a maze- and then he was being smacked upside the head. He jumped back, a bit dazed.   
  
“Guys, I have company,” he called quickly into the comms. The Galra advanced on him before he could say any more. Lance raised his bayard to take a shot. But the soldier was quick and in his face a moment later. He lashed out. This time the blow was hard enough to knock his helmet clean across the room. He was pretty sure he received a cut from that hit as something warm, thicker than sweat, trickled down his face. A second strike managed to dislodge his bayard and he heard it clatter to the floor.   
  
This soldier was clearly proficient in hand-to- hand. Lance might be a bit at a disadvantage. Or a lot. He was definitely going to get his butt kicked.  
  
The Galra seemed to be thinking the same thing. “Face it. You’re outmatched here.”  
  
What could Lance do? He didn’t really want to start a full out fist fight. That would be over in an instant. So maybe he could distract him until one of his teammates could show up. Lance didn’t like those odds either, but he had no other choice really.

"I’m not done yet,” Lance reached for his belt and found the pocket. He held up the vial in his hands. “If you don’t want to die a painful death, then you’ll let me go.”   
  
“Oh. Painful?” The soldier didn’t seem phased. In fact, he seemed amused, and Lance didn’t like it.   
  
“Sounds promising,” a second voice called from behind Lance. He looked up over his shoulder. Another large soldier loomed over him. Lance hadn’t heard him approach. He grabbed Lance roughly by the wrist and twisted his hand so hard that he dropped the vial right into the soldier’s palm.   
  
Lance was just lucky his wrist didn’t snap under the force.   
  
“Then we should use it on you, right?” Soldier number two asked. “Who would have thought you Voltron Paladins would be kind enough to provide us with a way to kill you. Certainly, makes things…simpler.”  
  


“Not before we have some fun with him.” The first soldier came up and punched Lance. All the air leaving him in a whoosh. The second soldier let go of Lance and let him fall on to his hands and knees. Lance was gasping for air, struggling to get back up on his feet. He had to get away, but then one of the soldiers—they were blurring together now– twisted him around so fast it made his head spin, and locked his arms behind his back in a strong hold. Then he kicked the back of his knee making him bend and fall to the floor once more.   
  
The Galra with the poison came up with the vial empty, and a large, not so empty, syringe in hand. He smiled wickedly.   
  
“Are your friends around the base as well?”   
  
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Lance retorted, earning a painful pull to his shoulders, and a smack to the back of his head.

“Tell us what your goal is being here then?”  The soldier holding him down said. Lance bowed his head and stared at the floor instead.   
  
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll kill him regardless,” there was a glint of mischief in his eyes. “Or perhaps you want to be our prisoner. I’m sure he’s full of information if we are given enough time to break him.”

Lance glared up at him, and laughed. “I’d rather die.”

The soldier only shrugged. “So be it.”   
  
The one holding the syringe stepped forward. Lance watched it, unable to take his eyes off the tip of the needle. Lance knew he wouldn’t die. Or he hoped he wouldn’t. Who knew what that old Altean medicine would do to him? He was human after all.   
  
Lance tried to pull away, struggling against the grip locking him place. Without any hesitation, the needle was jabbed harshly into the side of his neck. He could feel the liquid being plunged down and draining into his bloodstream. It sizzled in his veins. He wanted to scratch at his neck to make it stop. It was so much worse than he was expecting.   
  
Lance let out a sharp gasp as the soldier released his arms. He could already feel the stuff messing with his system. And he couldn’t catch himself as his body fell to the floor.   
  
He landed on his shoulder. The two soldiers were laughing. "Looks like you were telling the truth about this poison. You don’t look so well, boy”  
  
Lance wanted to throw another retort but he kept his mouth shut. It was becoming harder to breathe. And now he seriously needed back up, or he was going to really die here. Poisoned or not.   
  
“We should move. If he’s here it won’t be long until the other pests come along.”  
  
“I agree, but not before we leave our friend here with a parting gift,” Lance glared up at the Galra just in time to see him swing his leg and deliver a swift kick to his ribs. Then they didn’t say anything else. Just departed from the room.   
  
Pain erupted in his rib cage. He just hoped nothing was broken. But that wasn’t the worst of it. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath. The kick had pushed all the air from his lungs.   
  
It felt like time was slowing down around him. He could feel himself blinking. Long and heavy. He was being dragged down in to sleep. The heavy weight of it was threatening to crush him.   
  
Lance tried to crawl over to his helmet. If only he could call for help.   
  
He managed to slide himself across the floor, but he didn’t get very far before his body collapsed. He couldn’t will it to move any further. His muscles just wouldn’t obey. And so he just laid there. His lungs felt like they were slowing down, no matter how much air he tried to drag into them. Gradually, Lance felt his eyes slip shut. The world coming to a halt around him.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed until hands were gripping him by his shoulders again. At first, his mind quickly went to being held by the soldiers, but then he saw Shiro’s features swim into view.

And he was talking to him, but Lance couldn’t clearly understand. Everything was so muddled. He had messed up so bad. How could he let this happen?

“M’sorry. I messed up,” he apologized to Shiro. He felt the need to say something. He had hindered their mission.

“No, it’s not your fault.” Lance saw Shiro look around frantically. Perhaps searching for something that could help. But there wouldn’t be anything that could stop this. And that kind of scared Lance. What if he really was dying?  “Lance, what kind of poison did they use?”

Shiro jostled him. Lance whined, wanting him to stop moving him so much. His muscles cramped, sending white-hot pains through his arms and legs.

“Lance, please! Tell me about the poison.” Shiro begged. He sounded so desperate.

“Hm, poison? I didn’t mean to. The Galra…but it’s not. S’not… s’okay,” Lance slurred. He wasn’t sure if that was a full sentence or not. He just needed to tell Shiro not to worry. Just take him back to the castle and things would be fine. Coran could fix this… hopefully.

“Lance, no. Don’t go to sleep. You have to stay awake, okay? Just do that for me, please.”

“Tired though,” Lance responded. He just wanted to sleep. If only to put out the fire that was racing across his body. It was much too hot.

“Lance!” Shiro snapped. His was face contorted into a deep frown, eyebrows drawn together. He was so angry. Lance had only seen him like this when he was seriously distressed, or extremely pissed off. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me! You can’t.”

Lance looked up at him, afraid of Shiro in that moment. He didn’t mean to disappoint him. To make him mad. Lance knew he had failed. He should have been paying better attention or should have fought harder. But he couldn’t fight any longer. The drug held him in a vice, completely inescapable. “S-sorry.” Lance mumbled. He felt his eyes slide shut. More angry words came from Shiro, but they were muffled by the darkness around him.

But the darkness wasn’t calm. It was hot. Too hot. He was burning.

This was Hell. It had to be. Oh god.

Lance felt like he was falling into the flames. A fiery pit waiting to swallow him whole. He could feel the searing tingle in his muscles, eating him from the inside out.

Suddenly, Lance felt himself lurching forward, rather than falling down for a brief moment. He gasped for breath, eyes flying open, and something was holding onto his bicep.

He couldn’t catch his breath. He still felt like he was waiting to hit the bottom of a chasm. It was difficult to tell up from down.

“Lance, you’re okay. It’s okay, just breathe.”

But Lance didn’t feel okay. Waves of heat rolled over his skin, and anything touching him felt like it was dipped in acid. Uncomfortable, and he wanted it away from him immediately.

Lance tried to shrug the weight sitting on his arm away. But moving his body was a chore. His muscles quaked and spasmed, only accomplishing the smallest of twitches rather than the full movement he wanted.

“Lance? You with me?” the voice asked. Lance opened his eyes to a shadow sitting near him. Panic flared in his chest, but then his vision stabilized. It was Shiro, once more, beside him and in his room.

Lance released a breath of air he had been holding. But it didn’t help. His body felt wrong and twisted, and he couldn’t quite get in a full successful breath.

“Calm down, buddy. You’re in bed. We’re in the castle, remember? You’re safe.” Shiro told him, trying his best to reassure him.

He didn’t remember coming back to the castle though. He only remembered being beaten, and Shiro yelling at him.

“You were angry,” Lance whispered. Maybe the pain he was feeling now was because he had screwed up so bad. “Am I being punished?”

“What? No!” Shiro looked hurt. And taken aback by the question. “Of course you’re not being punished. And I was never angry. We talked about this before, yeah? Can you remember? Down in the infirmary, you told me, everyone, what happened.”

Lance tried to remember. It was difficult because his body seemed to be rebelling against him. But slowly, memories of a conversation he had earlier filtered back through the haze covering his mind. Shiro had forgiven him.f

“Oh,” Lance murmured.

“Everything’s okay now,” Shiro told him again.

“But it hurts,” Lance groaned. “Everything hurts.”

“I know. It’s a side-effect of the antidote,” Shiro looked like he wanted to reach out to Lance, but instead ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. We can’t give you any pain medication yet. But Keith is fetching a cold pack to help reduce the fever you got going on. Your running pretty hot right now.”

Fever? That’s why everything felt so horrible. Like a thousand needles were being pricked into his skin. His head buzzed like a swarm of hornets had made a home inside his brain.

“Sorry,” Lance couldn’t stop the apology. He felt like he needed to say something. Shiro had been the one to deal with him after he had been injected with the poison. He knew now that he could remember that no one was mad, but he couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty.

“Don’t apologize, you did nothing wrong.”Shiro offered him a smile. “I know you were scared. But you did the best you could Lance in that situation. And I think if anyone else were in your shoes, the outcome…would have been the same, or worse. So for now, let’s just focus on making you feel better, all right?”

Lance managed a tiny nod of his head. Yet even that slight movement caused his world to tilt dangerously. It was as if his bed had turned into a raft and he was being set adrift at sea. A low moan escaped him as he clenched his eyes shut to quell to waves of dizziness rolling over him.

It apparently sent Shiro on edge. “What’s wrong?” His body weight leaned into the edge of the mattress amplifying the Vertigo suddenly taking hold of him.

“Don’t rock the bed,” Lance told him. Words clipped and breathless. “So dizzy.”

“Oh, sorry bud.” Shiro retreated back slowly, pulling his weight off the bed as carefully as he could.

Lance took a deep breath. Nothing was right. He wanted to sleep if only to be granted a reprieve from feeling the sickness in his body, but he was too distracted by his discomfort.

There was a knock at the door, and he heard it open a moment later. Footsteps came over to the bed, and then Lance heard Hunk speaking to Shiro.

“I grabbed some water for when he wakes.”

“He is awake,” Shiro confirmed. “Just not feeling too great.”

Lance cracked his eyes open to peek at Hunk. Hunk beamed down at him warmly. “Hey there. How ya feeling?”

“Not good,” Lance mumbled. Definitely an understatement.

“I’m sorry. Do you want a drink?” Hunk held up one last water pouch in his hands.

“No.”

Another set of footsteps came into the room. Lance dragged his gaze over to the doorway to see Keith with something gathered in his hands. He approached cautiously, and held the items out to Shiro.

“Thanks for getting these, Keith. I think his fever is pretty high right now.”

“Can’t we give him more medicine?” Keith glanced sideways at Lance, worried.

Shiro shook his head. “Coran said we can’t. Not right away. It would negate the effects of the antidote. And hopefully these symptoms won’t last much longer.”  Shiro peeled off the clear backing to the cold pack. It was a small blue strip that didn’t really look too impressive. “I’m going to put this on your forehead, Lance. It will hopefully bring some relief.”

“Okay.”

Shiro brushed Lance’s hair away from his forehead. The light touch made his skin tingle, and then he placed the gel pack on his head. At first the contact was an unwanted pressure on his head, but as the cool started to set into his skin, it felt amazing.

The cold made him shiver more. He tried to pull his blanket up further onto his torso, but his hands were trembling so bad, that he couldn’t quite grasp the covers.

Keith could see what he was trying to do, and grabbed the edge of the blanket. He pulled it up to rest at Lance’s shoulders.

“Thanks,” Lance said.

He was still exhausted. The patch seemed to help distract him from the fever aches, and the pain in his body ebbed away enough to let him sleep. He slowly felt himself fading out. Light whispers of conversation coaxed him to sleep.

There were no dreams in his sleep this time. Just a cool, silent calm.

It felt like he hadn’t been asleep for very long when he next felt himself waking up. He opened his eyes, expecting everyone to still be in their same positions as it felt like only minutes had gone by. But Lance was surprised at what he found instead.

The light in the room was dim, but he could see clearly enough. Shiro was sitting in the chair next to his bed, head tilted back against the wall, asleep. But he wasn’t the only one. Keith was on the floor at the foot of his bed, part of Lance’s bedding draped over his shoulder. Pidge had made her way into the room too at some point. She was off in the far corner propped up against Hunk who was snoring lightly. They were all passed out. So Lance assumed it was very late at night or extremely early in the morning.

Most importantly, they had all come to be with him. It made Lance’ heart flutter in his chest.

He rolled over in his bed to get readjusted. He felt stiff from sleeping on his back for so long. But he didn’t think he had a fever any longer, or at least not as high of a one. He body still felt sore, but not nearly as bad.

SHiro stirred in his seat, and leaned forward. He looked at Lance and smiled. “Feeling better?”

“Some, still a little off,” Lance responded, keeping his voice low.

“Good,” Shiro moved, and pressed a hand lightly to Lance’s cheek. He could feel the stick of the cold patch still on his head. “Your fever is down. But I think you should try and rest a little more.”

Lance nodded. “Man with a plan.”

Shiro chuckled, and reclined back into his seat.

“Thanks for looking out for me.” Lance closed his eyes again.

“I’ll be here for you anytime. We all will.”

Lance knew it to be true. He may have fallen in battle, but he had his friends—no, they were family— to pick him back up again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been wanting to write this for a while now. Lance needed to be cared for after that whole ordeal. I just can't believe it took me a whole month to get this up.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I suck at summaries, by the way. 
> 
> And boy, look at the cheesy ending (Shiro just wants his team to be safe and good). The story is based on a prompt I received from Taylor-tut on tumblr. This was actually a lot of fun to write. I love writing Lance suffering with his team to look out for him.


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